Kathryn Gannon
NEW YORK - Investment banker James McDermott and industrialist Anthony Pomponio have been found guilty in an insider trading case which sent former porn actress Kathryn Gannon (a.k.a. Marylin Star) into hiding after a warrant for her arrest was handed down last December.
A jury took only two days to find former Keefe, Bruyette & Woods chief James McDermott guilty of conspiracy and insider trading for passing advance bank merger tips to Gannon, his then-lover, who in turn is accused of passing them on to another lover, Pomponio. Gannon and Pomponio were said to have pocketed between $80,000 and $90,000 in stock profits based on those tips.
Pomponio, a New Jersey industrialist, was convicted of the same charges plus perjury, for lying to Securities and Exchange Commission investigators during the probe last year.
Gannon has been in seclusion with her fiancée, Michael Gillies, in Vancouver, since her arrest warrant was issued. Her close friend, Marc Medoff, head of Adult Press Service, has maintained she wants to tell the entire story, including how she was naïve enough to let herself be misled by the rich and powerful on Wall Street, when the time is right and she could negotiate her return to the United States.
A Canadian by birth, Gannon has a home in Florida and has also told Medoff she wants nothing now but a quiet life.
McDermott and Pomponio each face the prospect of five years behind bars for conspiracy and 10 years each for each count of insider trading, not to mention potential fines of $1.25 million apiece. Pomponio also faces five years and a maximum $250,000 fine for the perjury conviction.
It's not yet known whether the defense for each man will file appeals.
Prosecutors had detailed McDermott's and Pomponio's relationships with Gannon during the trial, though U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood had blocked them from referring to her by her "Marylin Star" alias, or to nearly all details of her former career as an adult entertainer.
The case cost McDermott his career with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods - he resigned as the firm's CEO when he knew he was under SEC investigation, just prior to the firm's planned initial public offering, which it cancelled.
Gannon's former husband, Bruce Akahoshi, said he was "dumbfounded" by the news when reached for comment by AVN On The Net.
"So, are they going to go after her?" he asked, a little stunned, when told. "I think she might run scared, I mean, since they got convicted. It's funny... I had a [sneaking suspicion] they were going to be convicted, but I don't really know what she's going to do now."
